Fit For Life: Time to Take Responsibility!

Everyone wants to succeed at what they do. No matter how large or how small the task may be, we all strive for accomplishment and success at whatever it is we invest our time in. From your fitness program to your financial situation, to playing a team sport, we all want positive outcome and success, or we wouldn't be doing it. But there are steps and procedures we must first take before we achieve any goal.

Grant Cardone has a great line in his book the 10 x rule, and it goes like this "success doesn't happen to us, it happens because of us". "Whiners, crybabies, and victims don’t usually do well with success because they are usually too busy blaming others or outside circumstances for their lack of”.

Very rarely do you hear of "overnight" success stories or someone getting "lucky" and making a big hit. Yes, it happens sometimes, but when you look closely, most success stories worked their asses off to get where they are. They took steps to get there, and one step every successful person takes is accepting responsibility for their actions.

Successful people rarely blame others, cry victim, or complain when things don't go their way. Instead they step back and analyze the situation and decide what THEY could have done better.
They are resourceful, and they find solutions for problems that come their way. Instead of blaming and finger pointing, they find ways to get things done.

If you are late for something, don't blame traffic, blame yourself for not leaving early enough.

If you go out with friends and eat garbage and drink too much, don't blame your friends for feeling like crap the next day, take responsibility for your own actions.

When you get on the scale and you are not happy with the result, don't blame your boss, family, or others for not making the time to get to the gym regularly or eating properly, take the responsibility.

I see it and hear it daily. People crying victim and playing the blame game for their lack of accomplishments when the real culprit is standing in front of you in the mirror. That is the only person you should be blaming, and being accountable to, not outside elements that you have no control over.

If your car broke down, would you call work and miss the day, or would you Uber, and deal with it later? If you got stuck on a call, and was late for an appointment, would you blame the person you were talking to, or would you take the responsibility, and blame yourself for not managing your time? When it’s raining out, is that a good excuse for being late? When you make a bad decision in life, and things don’t go your way, who do you blame?

Do you constantly make excuses why you are not where you want to be in life? Both physically or financially? I’ll admit that there was a time that I blamed others for my lack of success. Someone promised me a great job a few years ago, then decided to go another route, and eliminated that position. This put me back because I counted on that job, and it put me in a bad financial situation, so I was bitter, and blamed the person that made the promise for having a bad year. The real estate market crashed in 2007 and that hurt me. HUGE. I struggled for years after that, and blamed the economy, and government, for my lack of success.

Not anymore. Now I know better and won’t count on anyone ever again, and will never make careless investments fueled by greed and money. When something goes wrong at my facility, I don’t blame my employees, I blame myself for not preparing them for the situation. If I am late, I get mad at myself for not factoring in the rain, snow or traffic. When I don’t get enough done during the day, I don’t blame people that distracted me, I blame myself for not being ruthless and protecting my time. If I have to rush in the morning, it’s my fault for not getting up early enough.

If I am tired or I get sick, I blame myself for not preventing it from happening. My business is good, but can be better. If I had better hiring, technology, and team management skills, I would be at a whole new level right now. But it’s a work in progress.

The good news is

The good news is that we all have the strength and ability to make things happen but we need to start accepting responsibility for our own actions, and paint a clear picture of what we want to accomplish. I love the employees that work for me, but if they don’t know what or how to do something, that’s on me. So, I keep investing in their training to improve their skill set. If a client has a problem, or is unhappy it’s on me. It’s my gym, and I will fix it! My computer skills suck, but I plug every day and try to learn something new, and refine my systems. It’s my responsibility to learn this stuff.

Two years ago, my business skill was zero. Yes. I have been self-employed for the last 30 years, but I never ran a business, so I find every opportunity to learn. Even if it means flying across the country 5x a year. But instead of throwing my hands in the air, and sinking due to my lack of knowledge and ability, I push harder to learn new things, and take responsibility for where I am today.

Everyone has the ability to be more successful in whatever it is that are doing. People that achieve success aren’t much different than you or me. The difference is that they take responsibility for their actions, they work hard through every situation, and they are resourceful when it comes time to getting things done in unfavorable situations. They don’t blame others for their misfortune, they blame themselves and find solutions.

But this isn’t for everyone; and the majority of people in this country aren’t willing to stand out and take the initiative. Besides taking responsibility, it requires hard work. I was talking with a client, and we both agreed that whether it be work, or getting in shape, anything rewarding requires hard work. But only a minority of folks are willing to do what it takes.

So my question to you is:

Are you like the sheep that run with the masses and follow the herd, by complaining about everything and blaming others for your lack of success? Or are you like the few savvy sheep dogs that control the heard and run the show by being slick, crafty, and resourceful? Are you going to stand out and be a minority by taking responsibility for your own actions and stop blaming others for your misfortune? Or are you going to keep crying victim, and blaming other people and circumstances for not achieving all your personal goals? I say, be a sheepdog and lead the pack, corral all your problems, and find solutions by being crafty and resourceful.

Don’t just fit in, stand out!

Matt Espeut, GoLocal's Health & Lifestyle Contributor has been a personal trainer and health & fitnesss consultant for over 25 years.

Related Slideshow: The 7 Best Health and Fitness Apps

MapMyRun

MapMyRun is the number one selling running app for a reason: it is easy to use, offers community support if you want it, and tracks and stores your exact routes for you. If you are training for a race or a serious runner, users say that the extra perks in the upgraded paid version are well worth it.

MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal seems to be the clear favorite amongst everyone polled. It is helpful not only for the fitness tracking aspect, but everyone polled mentioned how much they loved the food/diet aspect as well. From carb counting for diabetics to recipe ideas to complement your fitness goals, users love this app.

JeFit

JeFit is another fitness app that has rave reviews. It not only tracks progress for you, but offers a huge database of workouts. While many apps offer community support, JeFit allows you to sync workouts with friends who use the app, offering a (real) virtual buddy system.

Strava

Strava gets the highest mark of all the cycling apps. While it is also great for runners, the cyclers seem particularly inclined towards the fierce competition that can be ignited by this app. You can track all of your rides via GPS, then you can compare your efforts to those logged by others in the community on the same stretch of road. You can also join ongoing challenges that can net you great prizes (in addition to bragging rights).

YogaStudio

YogaStudio gets the top vote for Yoga apps. It has a lengthy collection of full class-length videos available at your fingertips. Unlike many other apps, this one also allows you to customize your own video yoga class. All of the poses are done by qualified yoga instructors, and you can find classes suitable for all levels of yogis.

SimplyBeing

SimplyBeing meditation app offers the best of both worlds. You can choose to run this app as a background for your meditation with soothing music or natural sounds that run for a set amount of time. Conversely, for those of you who have trouble focusing during meditation, you can choose a soothing voice-guided meditation.

Fooducate

Fooducate is an app all about educating people so that they make healthier food choices. Although not perfect, this app is easy to use (you can even take pictures of bar codes to instantly find foods in their database). It gives food a letter grade, tells you the pluses and minuses, and gives you better ranked alternatives. You can also use it as a weight loss tool by tracking your daily calories.